São Paulo city: social inequalities and the unregulated land occupation and use

Keywords in English

Land use
Social inequalities
Urban regulation

Abstract in English

São Paulo: Social Inequalities and the Unregulated Land Occupation and Use is the title that summarizes a city phenomenon that has taken place in this metropolis, due to the absence of regulatory framework by the public administration. Historical evidence has been given by São Paulo intellectuals from different backgrounds. Most of them are urbanist architects, who have noticed, first, that the city noble areas are located in the southwestern portion of the city; and second, the poor settlements have spread out towards the rural areas under very weak conditions thought to be immune to urban regulation, and has become a fertile ground for unlawful and clandestine settlements. Between them and the city center there was a speculative land waiting for the best price raise opportunity for the landowners housing capital investment, and the social emerging segments yet to come. As an epistemological contribution, this paper has learned that the absence of regulatory framework in the poor areas encouraged the absence of order in the rich ones, and as a consequence an unregulated land occupation of the city as a whole. This conclusion is based on a vast quantity of empirical data collected in the technical environment (public servants), and from the information systems made available by the city hall archives, as unprecedented approach in academia. It is based on theories of state-society relations, information from microeconomics, law and collective behavior studies, particularly The Broken Window Theory and the Political Window Theory. Once the unregulated land use has been confirmed, two scenarios remain from now on. The favorable scenario is pointed out by the Social Marketing strategies and the Zero Tolerance policy which surely are not feasible approaches for São Paulo City. The unfavorable scenario has been observed throughout the history of the rule of rights: as long as there is no social inclusion, the areas settled according to the state of nature will always be attractive.

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